Tales of Ivan Levsky is a collection of short stories written as a way of capturing Bulgaria’s oral storytelling traditions.

I was quite looking forward to it, I enjoy reading folk tales, but there’s no sugar-coating it, this book was painful to read. While the content and plot of each story was interesting, the way that it was written wasn’t particularly engaging. More than once, I found myself skimming through the middle so I could get to the point. They aren’t particularly long stories, no more than a dozen pages each, but while the beginning was enough to catch my attention, and the ending tied everything up nicely, the middle dragged.

I wouldn’t call it a poorly written book, but I do think that stories intended to be told orally aren’t going to be as effective when “transcribed”, as in this case.